About

Canadian born (Quebec) and raised in Coastal New England, I’ve called many places home over the years including, Chicago, Nashville, Singapore, Tybee Island Georgia, and now Lisbon Portugal. 

Conventional thinking suggests that once you’re in your 50’s you should be thinking about downsizing, simplifying your life and planning for retirement.  For some reason, this way of thinking just didn’t feel right at this point in my life.  I definitely was not ready to settle into a ‘retirement’ mindset.  Throwing conventional thinking out the window, I quickly set out to find our next adventure.  After evaluating several areas of Costa Rica and San Miguel de Allende in Mexico (both very beautiful but not quite what I was looking for), the decision was to move to Portugal.  Portugal stood out as a real gem in Europe, with its picturesque countryside, charming and historic villages, and miles of coastline.  Portugal is exactly what I was envisioning for the next chapter of my life.

If you’re going to start a new chapter, why not start a new blog.  Midlife in Portugal is about experiencing something new and unfamiliar in the second half of life with the same enthusiasm and curiosity as when you were younger.  My life centers around my home and family (a husband and two cats).  This blog centers around all the activities in managing our new home and garden (including the initial process of finding it) in our adopted country, traveling to local and not so local destinations, entertaining with old friends who visit as well as new friends. 

In order to feel fully assimilated into the Portuguese culture, in addition to learning the language (this will take years), a real focus will be to take Portuguese traditions, holidays and rituals and adjusting them with some American/Canadian aspects to make them our own.  It’s also important to really focus on taking care of myself, especially as this point in life when our bodies are not quite as resilient as they were. 

I hope you enjoy reading this blog about my experiences and occasional rantings.

A.J. Roy